Jill's 50th Birthday

 

Today is my sister in law's 50th birthday. We were both born in the same year but my birthday is a few month's away.

I wanted to make something a bit special for her and on a recent shopping trip to The Range I spotted this rather fabulous die. It is really big at over 10cm x 13cm so I knew it would make a great statement on a card. It is Another Candle from Sue Wilson at Creative Expressions. You get the very intricate die and then a frame to cut the outline.

I opted for a double Z fold card and used an 8" card as my base and cut a strip from another card to make the second Z fold.

The papers throughout the card are mainly from the Creative Citrus Pack from HOTP. This is one of my very first paper pads I bought and it came from the USA as in those days you could buy from there really cheaply as it was a really good exchange rate, shipping wasn't too expensive and you very rarely got stung by customs charges. There were very few decent supplies in the UK for cardmaking and scrapbooking was huge over there so every now and then I would place an order for some goodies.

The die was cut from cream card and I coloured the roses and leaves with Promarkers and added some Stickles glitter glue. The lettering has been sparkleified with a clear glitter pen from Spectrum Noir. I the added gold glitter glue to the flames. The backing frame was cut in gold cardstock. The striped paper is an offcut from a K & Co pad Studio K. 

The 50 star is from a piece of wrapping paper I kept from my hubby's birthday a few years ago. I added it to a scrap piece of card to strengthen it.

The inside of the card has lots of elements. One of the main ones is a bike stamp which is from Hip Hip Hipster Stamps at Kate Hadfield Designs. This is a really cool set and I can see me using more elements from it for future cards. We are a small family and we have clubbed together to buy her a mountain bike she wanted for her birthday. I have seen a photo of it an coloured it the same so it will be very personal to her.

The cocktail glass is a shaker die and stamp set Let’s Make Cocktails from Crafters Companion. It was in a mystery bag last year and at £14.99 to be honest I would not have bought it.  When you get loads of things in a mystery bag there are always going to be things you don't like, different styles of products you would not have bought and in this case nice little surprises that may come useful one day.

This has been cut with gold card an acetate window. I used a mixture of seed and bugle beads for the shaker. Despite wiping round with an anti static bag there must be a little bit of adhesive at the top as a couple of the beads keep sticking but they just look like bubbles so happy accident LOL. The cheers word is is a die from this set.

The scrabble sentiment is and old freebie from Tlc Creations. Paulette is very generous and has given away so many freebies over the years. If you are not a follower it is definitely worth doing so as she has images and some great sentiments. I coloured the tiles with a Promarker.

As a final touch I added a Little Miss character 'Little Miss Sunshine' as that is who she is. She has had some awful times in the past and been trod on by some nasty people but she is the most amazing resilient person and has an amazing gift to be able to help others. She has a website Choozing Happy and currently is having her first book published. We are so very proud of her and the person she is. The Mr Men set came from a themed edition of Let's Make Cards some years ago ad this was a last minute addition after I had taken the main photographs. The shape of the card meant the only way I could include it in the photos as to open it out completely. Shaped cards can be awkward to photograph sometimes.....

Ironically the addition of this character is poignant too as the Mr. Men characters are also 50 years old this year. Me an hubby were watching a programme about them and being of that age we all grew up with the books and watching them on the BBC. I realised that many of the bold and colourful style of images I like to colour stem from that and there is probably a lot of artists who have been influenced from that style. It's funny how I hadn't associated the connection until I saw this programme.

Card Details -

Size - 8” double Z fold 

Digital Image - Bike from Hip Hip Hipster Stamps (Kate Hadfield Designs)

Digital Sentiment - Old Freebie from Tlc Creations

Dies - Another Candle (Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions), Let’s Make Cocktails (Crafters Companion)

Paper - Cardmaker’s Citrus Creative Pack (HOTP) & Studio K 12” (K & Co)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Gel Pen

Embellishments - Stickles Glitter Glue, seed & bugle beads

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

• 613 Avenue Create - #5 Anything Goes
• AAA Birthday - #25 Any Birthday card
• A Bit More Time to Craft - #140 Anything Goes
• A Bit More Time to Craft Extra - Anything Goes
• A Perfect Time To Craft - #5-2021 Anything Goes
• A Place to Start - #5 Anything Goes
• Allsorts - #625 Happy Bright & Sunny Colours
• Art Impression Stamps - Birthday Cards
• Aud Sentiments - #275 For The Girls
• Cardz TV - #141 Anything Goes
• Catch The Bug - Anything Goes
• CCC Digi Creations - #125 Add Sparkle or Shine
• CD Sunday Plus - #61 - Anything Goes with a Digital
• Classic Design Challenge - #5 Anything Goes
• Colour Crazy Challenge - #19 Anything Goes with Colouring
• Crafty Creations - #421 Anything Goes
• Crafty Gals Corner - #219 For The Ladies
• Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper - Anything Goes with Patterned Paper
• Creatalicious Challenges - #211 Anything Goes / For A Woman
• Di’s Digi Designs - Birthday Wishes
• Dies R Us - #169 Anything Goes with a Store Brand Die (Creative Expressions & Gemini/Crafter's Companion)
• Digi Doodle Studios - #38 Bring on The Glitz
• Gem of A Challenge - #11 Anything Goes
• Get Creative Challenges - #101 Anything Goes
• Happy Little Stampers Die Challenge - Anything Goes with a die/diecut
• Ike’s World Challenge - #144 Anything Goes
• Jan’s Digi Stamps - Anything Goes
• Lemon Shortbread - #146 Anything Goes
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #158 Anything Goes
• Little Red Wagon - #602 Travel Related
• Love To Craft - #58 Anything Goes
• Mix It Up Challenge - #49 Anything Goes / 3 or More Layers
• Passion For Markers - #592 Spots and / or Stripes
• Pattie’s Creations Design Challenge - #182 Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - #20 Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Dies and/or punches
• Simply Create Too - #170 Use Glitter
• Sisterhood of Crafters - Use Spots & Stripes
• Stamps & Fun = Creativity - #389 Gold or Silver
• Stinkin’ Inkers - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
• Try It On Tuesday - Make It feminine
• Unicorn Challenge - #65 Shaped Cards (not sure if multi fold square counts?)
• Uniko Challenge - #65 Anything Goes / Use Die Cuts
• Word Art Wednesday - #491-492 Anything Goes
• Word Art Wednesday - #491-492 Anything Goes